Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the teleological and consequentialist idea, concerned with the outcome or consequences of an action. It defines good or bad actions based on the consequences of performing that action and what the course oof the actions will lead to, happiness or pain. Of all the options available, utilitarianism dictates that you must take the one that achieves universal happiness. Utilitarianism takes into account 7 factors; purity, remoteness, extent, duration, intensity, certainty, and what it is to be followed by.

The Utilatarian View

The utilitarian approach to this situation would be to use the hedonic calculus to determine whether this criminal should be given the death penalty, and therefore executed. The first factor of the hedonic calculus is the purity of happiness achieved by the action. A utilitarian would say that the happiness would not be pure because there would be a sense of guilt for the executioner and the obvious sadness from the criminal. The next factor is how close the happiness, it is immediate because the criminal cannot commit anymore crimes. However it can be argued that the same effect can be achieved by merely arresting the criminal. The extent and intensity of the happiness is not high either because it would not eliminate the sadness the families of victims felt and even if they feel happiness in this punishment it would not be very much, and for many others, this will not effect them. The joy felt would not last long because this is an ongoing problem, and there could be more murderers that will take their place. It is not certain that this action will certainly bring joy and happiness and could be followed by more people being upset, because they think that it was morally wrong and shouldn't have been done, however it could be almost unanimously agreed that the criminal should receive this punishment, this is very unlikely though. There is potential future happiness that this could cause however, it is not certain because the only way to know is to let the criminal live. If they are arrested it may have the same effect, unless they escape which in extremely unlikely. Overall the result of the hedonic caluculus, means a utilatarian would argue that is is moral to give the death penalty. However the outcome of the calculus is would vary from situation to situation and from person to person, making it unhelpful in such a specific situation.